As many times as I've seen this over the holidays, I never tire of it- every time I watch the film it pulls me in. Great performances by Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed ( the whole cast is great actually ). Love this.

Glorified saccharine rose-tinted myth.
Unfortunately, we all live in what if glum Potterville thanks to the Savings & Loan Crisis in the 1980s & 1990s compounded by 2009 global financial crisis on sub-prime mortgages & derivatives.
Mr. Potter rightly seen as poster boy of 1%.
Sigh.

It’s a Wonderful life George Bailey has become infamous, and for a good reason. When I was much younger, this movie always made me feel sad because all I understood was how difficult life was for George and how it seemed that all of his dreams were never going to come true. As an adult, I am finally able to appreciate what George comes to appreciate when Clarence the angel grants him the Christmas wish of seeing what life would have been like had he never been born. He sees all of the lives that his life touched and affected. In his own life he struggled and made sacrifices to support others. Through this unconventional gift, he gets a glimpse of all the lives that were saved, all the people that had a much better, richer life because of him. He realizes that his childhood dreams have become the wonderful life that he shares with his family and town, just in time for Christmas.

You know, at first I thought that this 1947 picture was a heart-felt story about good, old George Bailey and how he was driven (through certain escalating circumstance) to the absolute brink of desperation on Xmas eve.

But, I now realize that this film's Christian-driven storyline was actually all about a calculating angel named Clarence who wanted to earn his wings. And so - With that agenda in mind - Clarence is sent down from heaven in order to assist George Bailey. And if he does so this will put him in favour with god and allow him to earn his wings.

So, in other words - Clarence helping George has nothing to do with any apparent kindness, charity, or good will towards man - No. It doesn't - It's all just a selfish, self-serving act on Clarence's part to earn those wings that he covets so much.

And so - With that in mind - I think that this covetous scenario reduces this manipulative, little tear-jerker to the slimy level of showing us all just how hypocritical and pretentious angels really are.

This film has become a classic favorite for families every year at Christmas. It's not hard to see why. The story veers from heartwarming to heartbreaking and back again, with the story of George Bailey's life and the decisions he has had to make in his life. It can get a bit cloying for modern audiences, especially for non-Christian audiences. The over-the-top, cartoonish greed of Mr. Potter can get to be a bit much as well. However, overall, this is a good movie to watch with the family at Christmastime.

Believe me - This decidedly heavy-handed, Christianity-driven, tear-jerker (from 1947) is so loaded down with underlying religious propaganda that (depending on which side of the bible your "daily bread" is buttered on) it's either gonna warm your heart, or else it's sure to freeze it.

This film's storyline also preached (and I quote) "No man is a failure who has friends" - (Yeah? - Isn't that nice to know?) - But, with that in mind - (I ask you) - What about all of those out there who have no friends? Does that render them as failures?

Anyway - From my critically observant point of view - "It's A Wonderful Life" was so incredibly over-sentimental and highly manipulative (as it zeroed in on the idealism of small-town, American life in the late-1940s) that its storytelling repeatedly veered right off the radar into the stratosphere of pure surrealism.

And, as a result - This film ended up coming across like an extended (and very creepy) 2-hour-10-minute episode of The Twilight Zone. This was especially so during the film's "Pottersville" sequence - As well as in its final climatic moments of total jubilation.

Quotes

George Bailey: "I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long..."

George Bailey: "Just a minute... just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was... why, in the twenty five years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what's wrong with that? Why... here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers?" (cont'd)

George Bailey: "...You... you said... what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you -- a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be!"

George Bailey: "...It's this old house. I don't know why we all don't have pneumonia. Drafty old barn! (kicks kitchen chair) Might as well be living in a refrigerator... Why do we have to live here in the first place, and stay around this measly, crummy old town..." Mary Bailey: "George, what's wrong?" George Bailey: "Wrong? Everything's wrong. You call this a happy family -- why do we have to have all these kids?"